Milton's comprehensive ability to synthesize diverse elements from different traditions according to his artistic purpose is one of the most outstanding ways in which he manifested his originality. Even Manoa's attempt to ransom his son, one of the most remarkably original episodes in Samson Agonistes, has not only profoundly Christian overtones, but also, I should like to suggest, two classical analogues.

To the Christian reader the word ‘ransom’ inevitably suggests Christ's redemption of mankind, ‘Thy ransom paid, which Man from death redeems’. Just as surely as Job's declaration of faith, ‘I know that my redeemer liveth’, has been taken as an anticipation of Christ; the correspondences between Christ and Samson would have been evident to Milton's audience.